How Much Does a Business Coach Cost?
Are you thinking about growing your business or launching a new one from scratch? A business coach is someone who can work with you to assess your challenges and remove roadblocks so you can make your business a success. When researching a professional business coach, there’s a lot to consider. One of the first things you’ll think about is the how much a business coach cost. Other ways to search if by using the term business coach near me.
While a business coach cost can be a big expense for your business, it’s important to consider it as an investment, too. In this post, we’ll explore some truths about how much a business coach cost and give you some tips to help select one that’s within your budget.
Coaching by the hour or by the month?
One of the first things to consider when researching coaches is that there are a few different fee schedules that you’ll find. Some coaches will prefer to charge by the hour. You can expect to start your search in the range of €150 per hour. If you browse the coaches on Upskill Coach’s platform, for instance, you’ll find the hourly rates posted on the coach profiles. Just remember that the business coach cost can vary widely depending on the coach’s portfolio and industry experience.
While the hourly rate structure, paying by the session, can work as an introduction to the business coach process, many coaches will opt to work with clients on long-term schedules. To accommodate this, many coaches charge a monthly fee. A monthly billing system is a way to go to get regular communication, pre-scheduled interviews and the ability for the coach to get an in-depth knowledge of your business.
If you’re interested in getting into this type of contract, consider that the premiums might be higher than hourly rates but the value you get in return may far surpass what you’ll receive in pay-per-hour sessions.
You won’t find much information online about the rates for monthly business coaching because many coaches don’t publish them publicly. These types of arrangements tend to come after a coach has discussed a client’s needs and assessed their business for opportunity and potential.
It’s only once a coach has determined that there is potential for growth and value in your relationship that they’ll invest their energy into helping your business thrive. It’s a relationship that works for both parties since you’re trying to invest your money wisely too!
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Challenges of paying for business coaching by the hour
If you’re a newbie to the business coaching world, you might think that an hourly setup for your contract is the way to go. However, you might not realise the value that monthly contracts can bring to your business.
Let’s think about it from the perspective of the coach. How much can they learn about your business in a few one-hour sessions? Since they’ll be on a time clock, they won’t be able to take an in-depth look at your important business strategy and metrics and won’t be able to develop a comprehensive knowledge of your business. To do this properly, they need to assess your:
- Sales
- Costs
- Business model
- Corporate values
- Leadership
- Staff and employees, and more
Do you think they are able to get a good grip of your full corporate situation, including all of the above, in a few hour-long sessions?
With shorter sessions, it’s also tough for coaches to hear all the necessary viewpoints. Sure, they can listen to your understanding of the challenges in your business, but this doesn’t paint the full picture. Remember that a coach is not a shrink for your business. They prefer to get their hands dirty by also talking to employees and clients or reviewing your financial statements and business projections.
How to get more sales
Let’s use an example – your business is hanging on by a thread and you think that you need to generate more sales to help grow your business. If you went to a coach with the specific question “how can I get more sales?”, they’ll probably be able to come up with a few ways of attracting some new customers.
However, what if you went to a coach and reached a monthly agreement? Your coach would study your business figures to get a clear picture of your financial situation. They might find that, after some consultation and research, your sales volume isn’t your problem. Instead, maybe you should charge more for your services.
By charging clients more you might be able to promote your services at a fair market value or you might be able to expand your offerings to offer some premium services for an extra fee.
The second option is a much better solution for your business – it brings your sales model up to competitive standards. It’s costly to acquire new customers so it’s much more sustainable to be able to price your services appropriately and get more value out of your existing ones.
The better alternative strategy was only possible through a longer-term coaching arrangement which is why it’s common for the best coaches to recommend contracts of six months or more.
Are longer coaching arrangements right for you?
From the coach’s perspective, longer arrangements make good sense. They’re the best way to get maximum impact for their clients. But is a long-term arrangement right for you?
Here are two things you can consider when evaluating your options.
1. Are you ready for business coaching?
It might be a difficult thing to admit, but not every business executive is ready to be coached. Whether you’re new to your leadership role or you don’t think you’ll have the time in your life to commit to coaching, there are countless situational limitations that might impact the value that a coach can bring.
If the advice that a professional coach can provide will only fall on deaf ears, then the experience won’t be worth the business coach cost.
2. What value can you expect to get?
Try to think about a coaching arrangement just like any other life purchasing decision. It’s an investment in your business, meaning you can predict the return that you’ll get on your investment.
Let’s again consider the example we looked at earlier. Let’s pretend it’s an e-book retailer that markets digital cookbooks which are purchased and delivered through an online store. You typically sell around 2000 books a month and charge €30 each.
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Option A: hourly coaching sessions to generate more sales
In this scenario, you schedule three hour-long sessions with a coach in order to brainstorm three new ways to attract new customers. Let’s say the business coach cost €150 per hour so you’re paying a total of €450.
Two of the three new techniques you learned from your coach pay off and you attract 125 new customers through a better online marketing campaign and a new customer referral program.
That’s €3,750 in new sales. From your original €450 investment, you netted an additional €3,300. That’s not bad!
Option B: six-month coaching arrangement for a full business analysis and a revamped fee structure
In this case, you got into a long six-month arrangement with a business coach who charged you €2,000 a month for some in-depth business services.
Rather than focusing on expanding sales, you learned how to implement a new fee structure. You increased your sale price by €7 and added some premium options for a new cookbook bundle worth €50 per month.
With the higher price, you lost some monthly sales volume (as expected) but you’re still left with 1,800 customers. Around 500 of those opted to buy the new premium bundle.
By increasing the price, you added €9,100 to your sales when compared to your original selling price. The bundles added an additional €10,000, too.
So that’s €19,100 in new sales.
Since your costs for the business coach totalled €12,000 for six months, you’re left with an additional €7,100 per month in your business account.
As you can see, you can assess the return on investment that a coach can bring in a few different ways. You’ll achieve a different value from an hourly contract than what’s possible for a longer-term arrangement.
The important thing is to do some preparation in advance, consider your options and ask questions when it comes time to reach out to a business coach.
Depending on your business, your overhead costs and your need for coaching, there’s an option in the business coaching world that’s right for you. I hope this post has answered the question of how much is a business coach and given some thoughts to the ROI on coaching.
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